Former Avon cop accused of ramming cruiser held without bail

A former Avon police officer is being held without bail as a danger after police say he rammed his truck into a state police cruiser, causing troopers to open fire.

By Justin Graeber

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By Justin Graeber

Posted Jan. 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 25, 2013 at 3:38 AM

By Justin Graeber

Posted Jan. 25, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jan 25, 2013 at 3:38 AM

AVON

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It started Wednesday night with Gene Guilbault crouching in a bedroom closet at his Bridgewater home, the end of a shotgun barrel in his mouth.

It ended with Guilbault, a former Avon police officer, being fired upon by state troopers as he rammed a cruiser with his truck outside a doughnut shop in Avon, prosecutors said at his arraignment Thursday morning.

Guilbault, 48, of 34 Beaver Dam Road in Bridgewater, pleaded not guilty in Stoughton District Court Thursday to six charges, including assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, assault with a deadly weapon, negligent operation of a motor vehicle and failure to stop for a police officer.

Guilbault is a former corrections officer who was on the Avon police force from 1993 until 2006, when he resigned. Chief Warren Phillips would not elaborate on why he resigned.

Guilbault’s court-appointed attorney, Jacqueline Modise, said in court that her client suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. She said the trauma stems from an incident that occurred when he was a police officer: a child died in his arms after a car accident. She said he is seeing a doctor and is on medication.

Assistant District Attorney Anne Yas pointed to Guilbault’s “extremely erratic” behavior on Wednesday night in arguing for him to be held as a danger.

Yas said he has substance-abuse issues.

Judge Richard Savignano ordered Guilbault held without bail pending a full dangerousness hearing next Wednesday.

On Wednesday night, Guilbault put the barrel of a shotgun in his mouth he and his wife argued, she wrote in a request for a restraining order. That request was granted.

“I then jumped on his back to wrestle it away from his mouth,” she wrote in the restraining-order request. She told him she was leaving with their daughter.

Gene Guilbault fled and called his brother, Charles, an Avon police officer, the prosecutor said in court.

He initially had a 9 mm pistol with him, but dropped that off at his mother’s home in Avon, Yas said.

Charles Guilbault agreed to meet his brother in the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot at 600 Page St. The shop was closed when the incident there occurred, at about 10:20 p.m.

Charles Guilbault called State Police for backup because he was concerned about his brother’s mental state, Yas said.

In the parking lot, the two men talked, with Gene Guilbault getting more and more agitated, Yas said.

Guilbault got back in his blue pickup truck and drove at a state trooper who was standing with his gun drawn, then hit a cruiser at a high rate of speed, prompting the officers to fire to avoid a more serious accident, the prosecutor said.

Page 2 of 2 - Modise, Guilbault’s defense attorney, disputed that version of events, saying police fired first, and her client only hit the cruiser after he was shot in the leg.

She also said he was unarmed when he got to the Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot. Yas said Guilbault had two knives and a hatchet in his vehicle.

Modise also said her client was an “upstanding citizen” who had never been in trouble with the law before.